In a world filled with endless information, it has become progressively more difficult to figure out what to make of anything.
Let me give you a very recent example. The president just flew to China for the G-20 meeting. When his plane set down in China, the usual staircase that’s used to exit from Air Force 1, which as usual had been sent ahead in advance of the visit, was nowhere to be found. Typically, the president walks down the staircase, the American and world press stand in front and watch him deplane and take still and video pictures that are then sent worldwide.
What followed as reported was a bit of a Mack Sennett old silent movie comedy routine.
First, while the president was still in the airplane, all the security — both American and Chinese — yelled at each other about the staircase and perhaps there was a bit of pushing and shoving.
Then, when the press came off the plane, the Chinese security tucked them under the wing behind some blue tape, where they couldn’t see or photograph anything. The American and international press are not by nature a very docile lot, so it was probably just as well they weren’t armed; still, I’m sure they made their displeasure heard loud and clear. No one wanted to go home, after a trip to China, without pictures or a story because they wouldn’t let you see or hear anything. No editor is very understanding after paying for the reporters’ trip to China and have them come back empty handed.
Next, Susan Rice, the president’s national security advisor — a major power player in American international relations — and her deputy, came off the plane, lifted the blue tape and she and the deputy started walking over toward somewhere and the Chinese security guy apparently went bonkers. Again, there was apparently a great deal of shouting and it took someone from the Chinese Foreign Service and someone from the U.S. Foreign Service to try and calm down the tempers and defuse the situation.
Finally, the president came out of the plane, from a lower door, foregoing the usual smiling and waiving on the staircase, and proceeded to the conference. At the conference, surprisingly, America and China came to agreement on some global warming issues and signed a document, so history will probably call the conference a success.
Of course, all of the reporters were royally ticked off at their treatment and filed a first story about the fracas at the airplane and it ran front page in the New York Times and probably in a lot of newspapers and TV news broadcasts around the world.
So the question becomes: What should we make of this? The answer might depend on who you are, what county you are from and what line you, your government or your network are trying to peddle.
Scenario No. 1: This was not Beijing, but some other lesser city, which doesn’t see major diplomatic visitors like presidents, and were in over their heads, didn’t understand the protocol of these events, and just messed up the preparations and simply didn’t know what to do to get out of the problem. From the reports, this appeared to be President Obama’s public position.
Scenario No. 2: This was not a screw up at all, but a very definite decision by the Chinese government to create a minor incident at the landing to let the Americans and the world know that they are not afraid of the U.S. and see themselves as a rising power soon to be equal to us. Then, after running through this little scenario at the airport, and having their media pick up on how arrogant the Americans acted, they actually intended to sign the climate agreement but didn’t want to look like they were caving in to the Americans.
Scenario No. 3: It doesn’t matter whether it was No. 1 or No. 2 unless you’re running for president of the United States, and either way, the candidates are going to spin whichever way they think it works best for them. What President Obama wanted was a climate agreement, as apparently did the Chinese, and if the Chinese needed to go through a little charade for domestics reasons, well, that’s politics. Besides, an angry snit is not Obama’s style. What is his style is to indicate that the policy that was in the works to have America commit to a “No first nuclear strike” policy is now off the table and we are making no such commitment, so both Russia and China should clearly understand where we stand and what the risks are to them.
So take your pick.